OK, what's going on? Much more of this and we're all going to have a complex even bigger than the complex we've already got.
What's the problem? Our governors keep quitting on us, that's the problem.
First it was Mike Leavitt. Now it's Jon Huntsman Jr.
They not only quit, they move, leave the state entirely. One day they're talking about how great the future looks for Utah. The next they're not a part of it.
Our motto ought to be: We elect them — and hope they'll stay.
What's next? Begging?
It's just, well, embarrassing. Wyoming doesn't have this problem. Idaho doesn't have this problem. Nevada sure doesn't have this problem.
Illinois had a governor it wanted to get rid of and had to drag him out of the mansion by his ankles. Ours flip us the key on the way out of town.
A lot of states don't know what to do with their governor. We don't know what to do with our governor's mail.
We're the only state in the union where the NBA coach stays longer than the governor.
What's worse, we act like it's perfectly fine for the duly elected governor to bail out on the job we duly elected him to do.
Leavitt got a hero's send-off when then-President George W. Bush summoned him to Washington to head the EPA.
Huntsman likewise got a warm bon voyage when President Barack Obama tapped him last week as ambassador to China.
I don't get it. Nobody cheered when Urban Meyer left the University of Utah (unless you count the people wearing blue). Nobody rejoiced when Karl Malone went to the Lakers.
Why are politicians different? Why do they get to change jobs in the middle of the job? If we do that we get sued.
It makes sense when they leave one job because they get elected to a bigger one — Obama leaving the Senate for the White House, for example — but that's all done in full view and with the tacit approval of the electorate.
It makes no sense when no one gets to decide but them.
Huntsman's job change to China means one man's vote — Obama's — cancels out the 700,565 Utahns who elected him to office seven months ago.
And the man wasn't exactly beleaguered. No one was hanging him in effigy. No one was heating up the tar and feathers. He won re-election last November with 78 percent of the vote. He leaves with an 83 percent approval rating. People like Jon Huntsman Jr. They liked the job he was doing. He owned this state.
We gave him a house. We gave him a car. We gave him a plane. A lot of people donated money to his campaign and volunteered long hours to getting him elected.
And what did he give us in return? He quoted Johnny Paycheck. He told us to take this job and shove it. And for what? So he could be an ambassador.
Quick. Name a single ambassador currently serving anywhere in the world. Can't do that? Name a single ambassador anytime, anywhere.
Huntsman resigned being boss of Utah to take a job where you wear a tuxedo, host diplomatic parties where no one says what they're really thinking, and the person posing as the embassy accountant is really a guy working for the CIA who could kill you with a banjo string.
Ambassadors are old people looking for a soft place to land or young people looking to climb the ladder and maybe one day get elected governor.
The most important qualification to be an ambassador is to know which fork to use.
He left Utah to go to a place with bad air, jammed streets, little personal freedom and gymnasts who lie about their age.
In just a few weeks, he's going to be sitting in some bar in Beijing and the guy next to him is going to turn and ask, "So what crummy job did you leave to come here?"
And he'll say, "It was just temporary work in Utah."
This is America. We're supposed to fire them. They're not supposed to fire us.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com